Is Scotland Bankrupt Pt 4: Haud oan, whit aboot oor GDP?

Same waiver as before: If you’re looking for a reliable economic overview you need to read an economist’s blog. I just know how to read a balance sheet, do arithmetic and create nice graphs from governmental data spreadsheets. Oh and this is part4 so might be an idea to read parts 1,2 & 3 first. They’re not long.

So yeah, what about Scotland’s gross national product, GDP, then? The previous posts in this series have mostly been about public revenue and spending for Scotland and for UK. Gross national product is the complete national pay packet before profit-taking, tax, and other deductions. The World Bank is very helpful. Their website gives access to their worldwide database where you can select which countries, specific data and timelines you’re interested in and download it all to your computer in a spreadsheet. The spreadsheet can be at your fingertips in a few seconds and you can create graphs and visuals to your heart’s content. Same with Scottish Government GERS which is what started me off on this to begin with.

So here’s a few extracts. This is GNI in US$ which is now the World Bank’s preferred measure. It’s GDP plus a bit extra, for example including income contributed by country’s nationals working abroad. And this is GNI per capita, i.e. per head of population.

World Bank Data

The Nordic countries are obviously doing OK. Norway, obviously. Iceland is pretty good though it’s population is only 300,000. Germany and UK are a bit, but not far, behind. Here are some detailed per capita numbers, again in US$. Clearly it pays to be a) very small and have either b) a lot of private banks, Luxembourg, or c) be the registered nation for a very big multinational company, Luxembourg and Amazon, or d) have a lot of oil, Qatar. And look at Ireland!!

World Bank GDP per capita data, 2015

What is Scotland’s GDP? And how does it compare with our Nordic neighbours and a few others?

WorldBankData; ScotGov GERS

In other words, as far as overall income for each one of us here in Scotland, we’re producing as much as Canada, Finland and Germany, yes GERMANY!!! and a bit more than France and Japan. Not to mention lots more than Turkey and Russia.

When was the last time you heard anyone say that Canada, Finland, Germany, France, Japan, Turkey and Russia couldn’t afford to be independent?

When was the last time you heard that Scotland was too poor to be independent? Yeah, probably today on the BBC or in the Herald, Scotsman, Telegraph, etc, etc.